Union Hall Street was a station on the

Long Island Rail Road The Long Island Rail Road , often abbreviated as the LIRR, is a commuter rail system in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, stretching from Manhattan to the eastern tip of Suffolk County, New York, Suffolk Co ...

Main Line Mainline, ''Main line'', or ''Main Line'' may refer to: Transportation Railway * Main line (railway), the principal artery of a railway system * Main line railway preservation, the practice of operating preserved trains on an operational railw ...

at Union Hall Street, near York College, in

Jamaica, Queens Jamaica is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens. It is mainly composed of a large commercial and retail area, though part of the neighborhood is also residential. Jamaica is bordered by Hollis to the east; St. Albans, Springfi ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

History

Early history

A station opened at New York Avenue (now Guy R. Brewer Boulevard) on June 24, 1890, when the local

Atlantic Avenue rapid transit The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Africa, Europe and ...

trains were extended from

Woodhaven Junction Woodhaven Junction was a station complex on the Atlantic Branch and Rockaway Beach Branch of the Long Island Rail Road, located at Atlantic Avenue between 98th and 100th Streets in Woodhaven, Queens, New York City. The elevated Rockaway Beach ...

through

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

Rockaway Junction Rockaway Junction was a junction and station on the Long Island Rail Road's Main Line and Montauk Branch in Hillside, Queens, New York City, United States. It was located in the vicinity where the Montauk Branch now crosses over the two eastbou ...

. The station was closed in 1905, but in response to complaints about the reopening of Jamaica station on Sutphin Boulevard (primarily because the downtown core of Jamaica was centered on Union Hall Street, the site of "Old Jamaica"), the LIRR opened a new one a block away at Union Hall Street in 1913, when the tracks through Jamaica were

grade-separated In civil engineering (more specifically highway engineering), grade separation is a method of aligning a junction of two or more surface transport axes at different heights (grades) so that they will not disrupt the traffic flow on other tran ...

. Union Hall Street station was built near the site of the "Old Jamaica station," originally at ground level and eventually elevated between 1929 and 1931.

Decline and closure

The construction of the newer Jamaica station led to commercial development around Sutphin Boulevard, and as a result, the new station became Jamaica's primary LIRR station. Eventually, the Union Hall Street station's patronage dropped, since it was only half a mile from the station at Sutphin Boulevard. On May 21, 1973, the LIRR announced plans to significantly reduce service at Union Hall Street,

Springfield Gardens Springfield Gardens is a neighborhood in the southeastern area of the New York City borough of Queens, bounded to the north by St. Albans, to the east by Laurelton and Rosedale, to the south by John F. Kennedy International Airport, and to the we ...

, and

St. Albans St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major town on the old Roman r ...

, with only a few trains stopping during rush hours. At Union Hall Street, service was limited to three westbound trains, leaving at 7:27 a.m., 8:39 a.m., and 5:18 p.m., and three eastbound trains, leaving at 9:03 a.m., 5:06 p.m., and 5:39 p.m. Union Hall Street closed on May 20, 1977. Some people in the area were already under the impression the station was closed. Some time before, wire fences were installed to seal Union Street, which passes under the station, to car traffic. An opening was left to allow people to reach the staircases to the platforms. In recent years, a decorative wall mimicking a station house was placed over the bridge where the former Union Hall Street station was located. Twelve years after the station closed, the Jamaica Center–Parsons/Archer subway station opened two blocks west of the former Union Hall Street station; the subway station was intended to replace the former 160th Street elevated station a block north on

Jamaica Avenue Jamaica Avenue is a major avenue in the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, New York, in the United States. Jamaica Avenue's western end is at Broadway and Fulton Street, as a continuation of East New York Avenue, in Brooklyn's E ...

References

External links

*
Original Union Hall Street Station image (Unofficial LIRR Site)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Union Hall Street (Lirr Station) Former Long Island Rail Road stations in New York City Railway stations in the United States opened in 1913 Railway stations closed in 1976 Railway stations in Queens, New York Jamaica, Queens 1913 establishments in New York (state) 1976 disestablishments in New York (state) Railway stations in the United States opened in 1890